A talented slow left-arm spinner, Pushpakumara forced his way into the Sri Lanka Under-19 side for the triangular tournament also involving England and Bangladesh in December 2005.The consistency with which Malinda Pushpakumara, the left-arm spinner from Moors SC, performed during the 2012 season for Sri Lanka A forced the hands of the selectors to finally include him in the A team to South Africa and triangular tournament also involving South Africa and Zimbabwe. Malinga has been knocking on the door for bigger honours for quite some time and the way he bowled against strong sides like West Indies A and New Zealand A confirmed the quality of his bowling. 2012 has been an outstanding year for him when he picked up 56 wickets for Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in nine first-class matches and 9 for 46 his best against Lankan CC. His performance was one bright spark for the selectors who had been frustrated by the poor standards set by the batsmen. The consistency with which he has performed is not only consigned to the A team, but in the past three seasons he has won the best bowler award twice by topping over 50 wickets in the Premier league for his club.